Advanced multilevel solution for thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of simple sliding line contacts

A new computational algorithm is developed for the problem of thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of line contacts under simple sliding conditions. Because of the applications of multilevel multi-integration to the calculations of elastic deformation and moving surface temperature and the use of a new relaxation process in the stationary surface temperatures, the computational complexity has been reduced from O(n2) to O(n 1n n). The standard central difference approximation to the coupled Reynolds and energy equation employed can yield the maximum mass flux defect with 1%. The correlation formula of film thickness reduction factor, Ct, is obtained for a wide range of operating parameters. Results show that the thermal effect on Ct is more pronounced for simple sliding conditions than for rolling/sliding conditions. The contour maps for the maximum film temperature rise and maximum surface temperature rise are also presented for a wide range of loads and thermal loading parameters.